Archdiocese to hold special Mass for Iraqi Christians

The special prayers and Mass will be held at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Mary Immaculate of Lourdes Church in Newton. The service comes as ISIS jihadist militants are threatening Iraqi Christians and ethnic Yazidis with death.

BRAINTREE – The Boston Archdiocese will hold a special “Mass of Peace and End of Persecution of Christians in Iraq” at 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Newton.

The Mass will be celebrated at the Mary Immaculate of Lourdes Church, 270 Elliot St., off Routes 9 and 128 in Newton Upper Falls.

The service comes weeks after jihadist militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, forced Christians in Mosul and other cities to flee, and a few days after American airstrikes and action by Kurdish fighters broke an ISIS mountaintop siege of Yazidis, a minority sect whose pre-Muslim beliefs are considered heretical by the jihadists.

ISIS has threatened to kill Christians who don’t flee or convert to Islam.

The Newton worship service will include special prayers before the Mass, and a procession after the service. The Mass will be celebrated by the Rev. Bassim Shoni, the Archdiocese chaplain to the Boston-area Iraqi community, and the Rev. Michael Harrington, director of the Archdiocese Office of Outreach & Cultural Diversity.